PD: Two Recent Shootings May Be Linked

By Howard Schwach

PD: Two Recent Shootings May Be Linked

Police officers from the 101 Precinct and from the Emergency Service Unit (ESU) outside of 423 Beach 28 Street on Tuesday evening. A search of the house did not reveal the shooter of Michael Ruiz earlier that day.

By Howard Schwach

Two shootings, the first on Saturday June 25 and the second on Tuesday, June 28, may be linked, police officials said.

"The thinking now is that the second shooting was in retaliation for the first," said a spokesperson for the New York City Police Department’s Deputy Commissioner for Public Information.

The Saturday shooting took place just prior to midnight, when police responding to a call of "male shot," found 18-year-old Christopher Warren with two gunshot wounds in his right leg.

When police arrived, Warren was sitting in a car with three other men. He told police that he was walking past a party at 394 Beach 25 Street with a friend when an unknown shooter fired four or five shots at them. The two ran until they found the car occupied by the two other men.

They remained there until police arrived.

The Tuesday shooting occurred at approximately 6 p.m. in the evening. The victim of the shooting, Michael Ruiz, 28, who has a record for criminal possession of Marijuana, according to police, said that he was in front of a house on Beach 28 Street when he and an unidentified man began to argue, allegedly over money owed to the shooter.

Ruiz told police that the two had an argument and that the man pulled a gun and fired three of four rounds in close proximity, striking him once in the left side of his face and left ear.

Ruiz fled, leaving his bicycle and hat behind, running to Beach 27 Street and Seagirt Boulevard, where he was spotted by a police officer from the firearms registration unit, who was passing by.

Ruiz said that he was unsure as to just where he was shot.

Police began a search and found both his bike and his hat at 423 Beach 28 Street.

Police at the scene were told by a resident that the shooter had fled into that house.

Emergency Service Units were called and aviation responded as well.

A search of the house with the permission of its owner did not reveal the shooter.

Local hospitals were checked for another gunshot victim and the local neighborhood was canvassed by police from the Queens South Task Force.